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Magic Milk Science Experiment – Amazing Explosion of Color!

Did you know that it is easy to turn ordinary milk into a rainbow of crazy colors? With only four common kitchen items, kids are thrilled by the color explosion created by the hydrophilic and hydrophobic molecules in our magic ingredient!

Watch our demonstration video, then print out a materials list and instructions to plan for this simple and fun science experiment. Easy to understand explanation of how it works is included below.

JUMP TO SECTION: Instructions | Video Tutorial | How it Works

Supplies Needed

• Milk (Must be either Whole or 2%)
• Food Coloring. The more colors the better
• Shallow Dish or Bowl

Magic Milk Science Lab Kit – Only $5

Use our easy Magic Milk Science Lab Kit to grab your students’ attention without the stress of planning!

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Magic Milk Experiment Instructions

Step 1 – Pour some milk into a shallow dish or bowl until the milk covers the bottom.

Step 2 – Add some drops of food coloring on the milk. You can use a variety of colors, just be sure to add 3-4 drops of each color.

Step 3 – Add a drop of dish soap into the center of the milk.

Step 4 – Watch in amazement as the colors dances across the surface of the milk. Do you know what caused the colors to move around in the milk? Find out the answer in the how does this experiment work section below.

Video Tutorial

Detailed Magic Rainbow Milk Science Experiment Step by Step Instructions

How Does the Science Experiment Work

The key to the dancing colors in this experiment is soap! Soap molecules consist of a hydrophilic (“water-loving”) end and a hydrophobic (“water-fearing”) end. Water molecules are polar molecules that can dissolve other polar molecules. Fat (and oil) molecules are nonpolar molecules, so they cannot dissolve in water.

Milk is a mixture of water, fat, vitamins and minerals. When soap is added to the milk, it helps to separate the water and fat in the milk. When soap is mixed in with the fat and water, the hydrophobic end of the soap molecule breaks up the nonpolar fat molecules, and the hydrophilic end of the soap molecule links up with the polar water molecules. Now that the soap is connecting the fat and water, the nonpolar fat molecules can be carried by the polar water molecules.

As the soap molecules connect to the fat molecules, the molecules of the food coloring get pushed around everywhere resulting in an explosion of color! As the majority of soap molecules attach to the fat molecules and the soap spreads throughout the milk, the color explosion will slow and eventually stop. Add more soap and see if there are more fat molecules that haven’t attached to soap – if there are unattached fat molecules still, the color explosion will begin again.

This experiment works best with 2% and whole milk because they contain more fat.

Other Ideas to Try

Try this experiment again using milk with different fat percentages. Try it with skim milk, 1% milk, 2% milk, whole milk, half and half, and cream. Consider even trying evaporated milk and sweetened condensed milk. See how the amount of fat affects the explosion of color!

I hope you enjoyed the experiment as much as we did. Here are some printable instructions:

Magic Rainbow Milk Science Experiment

Instructions.

• Pour some milk into a shallow dish or bowl until the milk covers the bottom. Tip: Be sure to use either Whole or 2% Milk
• Add some drops of food coloring on the milk. You can use a variety of colors, just be sure to add 3-4 drops of each color.
• Add a drop of dish soap into the center of the milk
• Watch in amazement as the colors dances across the surface of the milk

Reader Interactions

November 11, 2019 at 6:47 pm

I did this in my science class and it worked really well! I looked at a lot of science experiments but couldn’t find one I liked and then I found this at the last minute and it was really good so thank you for sharing:)

April 12, 2023 at 9:03 pm

I agree, Emma. It has worked every time and was fun to watch! This explanation of the experiment is very informative. I have done this experiment a lot when I was younger. ☺️

August 19, 2020 at 11:48 am

It was pretty cool

October 19, 2021 at 8:33 pm

This was a really fun activity!

November 19, 2021 at 8:26 am

Because of this experiment I got to the finals of my Sci Expo

February 13, 2022 at 8:11 pm

It was actually pretty cool. I did this for my science project. Also, the colors came out really nice! i will definitely try again.

April 2, 2022 at 5:27 am

Thanks a million for these fantastic ideas and explanations!

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Color Explosion Magic Milk Experiment and Science Fair Project

Want an extremely fun, easy, inexpensive experiment with serious WOW factor? You’ve got it with this Color Explosion Magic Milk Experiment that let’s kids explore a fireworks explosion of rainbow colours that appear to move and change like magic! It’s not magic though, it’s science. This easy science experiment is a must do for all ages. Today we have taken things even deeper by developing an entire Science Fair Project around Magic Milk.

Magic Milk Science Experiment

What you will discover in this article!

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With all the crazy experiments we have done around here, from launching baking soda and vinegar rockets, to building light up circuit bugs, to magic colour changing oobleck, sometimes it’s the simple experiments that surprise us the most! This Magic Milk experiment did exactly that.

With a very simple set up, and items from the kitchen, we ended up spending an entire afternoon experimenting, testing and learning. All with lots of mesmerized faces, quietly watching in awe what was happening in front of them.

Here’s the thing with Magic Milk experiments, they are extremely calming and relaxing to watch. It’s like a scientific calm down dish, instead of a calm down bottle. If you need an activity to keep the kids calmly entertained as they learn, this is it!

EASY SCIENCE EXPERIMENT – MAGIC MILK

The quick and easy way to do Magic Milk is to take your milk, whatever you have in your fridge should work (as we proved with our science fair project below), then you just need a pie plate or shallow dish, dish soap and food coloring.

Fill the dish with milk

Pour milk into the dish, we made ours about 2cm deep. We used a variety of milks in our science fair project below. You should be able to use whatever you have in the fridge. Let it settle for a moment, this will take more time the higher the fat content.

Add drops of food coloring

Scatter some drops of food coloring in the milk.

Add dish soap

Use a Q-tip or pipette to add a drop of dish soap to the center of the plate and watch what happens!

MAGIC MILK SCIENCE FAIR PROJECT

The joy of having kids that have been raised to be creative, imaginative thinkers, who embrace the Scientific Method, is that they have so many amazing questions. Very quickly our Magic Milk Experiment became a Magic Milk Science Fair Project.

HOW DOES THE FAT CONTENT OF THE MILK AFFECT THE MAGIC MILK EXPERIMENT RESULTS?

That was the big question for our science fair project. We wanted to know if the fireworks of colors created by the dish soap in milk would change at all based on the type of milk or cream we used. Specifically we look at fat content.

RESEARCH INTO MAGIC MILK

Our research actually led us to some conflicting and confusing information about what exactly was happening during the Magic Milk experiment. Finally we found some concrete answers that made sense, especially once we did our experiments. Turns out the whole things is based on surface tension and the polarity of molecules. More on the science in a moment!

Resources on Magic Milk include Scientific American and American Chemical Society .

HYPOTHESIS: Higher Fat Content EQUALS SLOWER COLOR MOVEMENT

After doing our research, I pulled out the milks we had available. We were going to test 2% fat (milk), 18% fat (coffee cream) and 33% fat (whipping cream). I asked the kids to come up with their predictions and best educated guesses for what might happen. Their hypothesis was that the higher the milk fat content, the slower the colors would move through the milk.

HOW TO DO THE MAGIC MILK EXPERIMENT

Next we set up our experiments. Our constant variables were our Dawn dish soap applied in the middle of the plate with a Q-tip, milk 2 cm deep in a pie dish so the amount of milk was consistent, a consistent number of food coloring drops scattered in a similar pattern each time.

Our independent variable, the one thing we changed each time, was the fat content of our milk. We used 2%, 18% and 33%.

For our dependent variable we studied how the colors exploded and moved after the dish soap was added. We watched for changes in how fast colors exploded across the milk and if there were different patterns in how the colors moved. We also timed how long the colors continued to move.

Check out our Magic Milk Color Explosion Video!

Results of magic milk science fair experiment.

Our results were striking! The 2% milk rapidly exploded with colors that flew around the plate. In a short amount of time the colors started blending together and the dish soap, which stays as a little bubble, started floating around pushing reactions around the plate. The colors moved and blended about, constantly moving and changing. There was a lot of action with the rainbow of colors.

The 18% moved more slowly, the colors tended to stay together for a very long time without mixing. It also took a lot longer for the dish soap bubble to start moving around the plate.

Once it did start moving, slowly, it did start forcing more mixing of the colors. We found the colors pushed to the edges of the plate in a multi-colored ring.

This color blocking is very similar to what we saw in the Skittles Science Experiment . This made us wonder about the possibility of water stratification and concentration gradient playing a role in our results as well.

33% gave us the most astonishing and amazing results. The colors spread in fractals. Branching out in short little bursts. Like leafless branches, that never mixed into the milk. The soap bubble did not move, staying anchored in the middle of the plate where we had placed it. Very minimal mixing of the colors occurred, only happening when two fractals accidentally crossed paths.

With all three we stopped our stop watch at 15 minutes as the reactions and movement were still ongoing and, although they had slowed, they didn’t seem to be ending any time soon.

I mentioned earlier that when we were doing our research we came across from conflicting and even confusing information on the possible science behind magic milk. Our experiment allowed us to study how the fat content affected the movement of colours, allowing us to draw solid conclusions, informed by our research, into what exactly is happening.

Our hypothesis was correct, but our results lead to even more fascinating findings!

Conclusion – The Science Behind Magic Milk and Fat Content

With our Magic Milk Science Fair Project we were able to study the effect fat content had on the movement of colour when dish soap is added. Our results tell us that fat content plays a large role, but the reason may be surprising.

Liquids have something called surface tension. Water, milk, and cream are made up of molecules that have positive and negative charges on their surface. Just like magnets these charges allow them to attract and repel other molecules. When milk or cream is by itself, it’s molecules are surrounded by the same type of molecules, creating a nicely balanced push and pull. The exception is the top which is exposed to air which pushes down on the liquid, creating surface tension on the top of the liquid.

There is a substance that affects a liquid’s surface tension, it’s called a surfactant. Dish soap is mostly comprised of surfactants. It has a hydrophilic part that is attracted to the water and a hydrophobic part that wants to interact with the fat molecules and repels water.

It’s all about surface tension

The pushing and pulling of the fat and water molecules in the milk separates them, resulting in a decrease of the surface tension.

We see a big difference between our various fat content milks due to the different ratios of fat to water in the liquids. The higher fat content milk is much thicker. We can see this before adding the dish soap if we just look at the food colouring drops. The food colouring spreads significantly in 2%, spreads a little in 18% and doesn’t move at all in 33%.

This means, in our 33% milk, there is less water for the hydrophilic part to attract, and way too much fat for the hydrophobic part to ineract with. The surfactant (dish soap), has very limited effect on the surface tension, which remains quite a viscous, stable liquid. This leads to the fractal style, very limited spread of colour we see in the high fat milk.

In the 2% milk we have lots of water and some fat, allowing the surface tension to be affected easily. This results in a dramatic dance of color.

FURTHER STUDIES IN MAGIC MILK

Already the kids have identified more testing we can do in the future. This includes testing different surfactants. They wonder how shampoo or soaps may affect our results. They also wondered if there would be a difference if we used a oil or gel color instead of liquid food coloring (which is mostly water).

The kids also want to test lower percentage milks like skim and 1%, plus other types of milk like soy, coconut, goat milk, etc. to see how the different types of milk react.

MORE SCIENCE FAIR PROJECT IDEAS

Magic Milk Experiment

Explore the magical and explosive colourful experiment that involves a reaction between milk and dish soap.

• 1/2 – 1 cup milk experiment with different percentage fat milks and creams to see how it affects the results
• 1 tsp dish soap
• bottles food colouring in a variety of colours

Instructions

Pour milk into the shallow dish until it is about 1 to 2 cm deep. The amount of milk required will vary based on the size of your dish.

Add drops of food colouring to the milk.

Take the Q-Tip and dip it into the dish soap, then place the q-tip into the middle of the prepared milk and watch the reaction. You can remove the q-tip after a few seconds and the reaction will continue. The pattern of the reaction and duration will vary based on the fat content of your milk or cream. Experiment with a variety to see how your results change.

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Magic Milk Experiment: How-To Plus Free Worksheet

This classic experiment teaches kids about basic chemistry and physics.

This fun experiment is a classic for a reason! In the magic milk experiment, kids learn about simple chemical reactions and physical properties using only a few ingredients. Read on to see how to do the experiment, and fill out the form on this page to grab your free recording sheet.

How does the magic milk experiment work?

In this experiment, you pour some milk into a shallow dish. You then add drops of food coloring to the surface of the milk. Using a cotton swab dipped into dish soap, you lightly brush the surface of the milk. The dish soap breaks the surface tension of the milk, and the soap molecules try to attach to the fat molecules in the milk. This causes swirls and bursts of fun rainbow colors.

What does the magic milk experiment teach?

This experiment teaches us about the science of molecules and how substances interact. The soap breaks down the fat molecules and makes them move apart, showing us a simple but fascinating example of chemistry in action!

Is there a magic milk video?

This video shows two different ways to do the magic milk science experiment, using very similar ingredients.

Materials Needed

To do the magic milk experiment, you will need:

• Shallow bowl or plate
• Milk, blue dish soap
• Cotton swabs
• Food coloring (inexpensive works better than gel coloring)

Our free recording sheet is also helpful— fill out the form on this page to get it.

Magic milk experiment steps:

1. pour milk into a shallow dish or bowl, just enough to cover the bottom..

2. Add drops of food coloring all over the surface of the milk.

3. Dip the end of a cotton swab into a separate dish of blue soap.

4. Lightly brush the top of the milk with the cotton swab, and watch what happens!

Grab our free magic milk experiment worksheet!

Fill out the form on this page to get your worksheet. The worksheet asks kids to guess the correct order of the steps in the experiment. Next, kids must make a prediction about what they think will happen. They can use the provided spaces to draw what happens before and after they add the dish soap. Did their predictions come true?

Additional Reflection Questions

• What happened when we added the soap to the milk?
• Why do you think the colors appeared on the milk’s surface?
• What do you think would happen if we added more soap to the milk?
• What do you think would happen if we used a different liquid instead of milk?

Can the magic milk experiment be done for a science fair?

Yes! If you want to do the magic milk experiment for a science fair, we recommend switching up some of the variables. For example: Does the fat content of the milk matter? Does the type of dish soap matter? Form a hypothesis about how changing the variables will impact the experiment. Good luck!

Looking for more experiment ideas? Check out our big list of experiment ideas here.

Plus, be sure to subscribe to our newsletters for more articles like this., you might also like.

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Magic Milk STEM Experiment: Colorful Science for Kids

Are you ready to have some STEM fun with your kiddos? There’s more to this Magic Milk experiment than meets the eye. Learn all about color mixing, chemical reactions, surface tension, and more!

STEM activities provide a fantastic opportunity for kids to explore the world around them and develop a love for science. The “Magic Milk” experiment combines the principles of chemistry and color theory to create a visually appealing and fun learning experience.

Magic Milk is a simple, inexpensive, and safe STEM activity that kids of all ages can enjoy!

Whole milk, food coloring, and a bit of dish soap come together to show children a magical explosion of colors.

This activity not only piques their curiosity but also serves as an excellent teaching moment to delve into the science behind the colorful phenomena. Learning the concepts of surface tension, chemical reactions, and color mixing can begin to cultivate a lifelong love for STEM subjects.

This is one of those simple science experiments that can teach kids things they never thought of before! I first learned about this food coloring experiment (and many other simple experiments) from the  Steve Spangler Science website .

If you love doing STEM activities with your kids, make sure you check out my Earth Day Science Experiment and Snow Volcano Experiment activities too!

Let’s dive in and have some science fun!

The Science Behind Magic Milk

You might be wondering what causes the amazing color explosion in the magic milk STEM activity. There are several factors to consider in this fun science experiment:

To understand what’s happening in the Magic Milk STEM activity, it’s important to know that milk is made up of water, vitamins, minerals, fats, and protein molecules. In this experiment, you observe the interaction between fat (in the milk) and soap.

The type of milk you use for this activity matters . Whole milk has a higher fat content (roughly 3.25%) than reduced-fat varieties (like 2% or 1%).

The fat content of the milk is important for the chemical reaction involved in the activity.

Love crafts and easy DIY projects? Grab this mini activity book for more by clicking the image below – free! 👇

Food Coloring

Now, let’s move on to the color explosion. The magic milk experiment relies on the interaction between milk’s fat molecules and dish soap.

When you add dish soap to the plate of milk, its molecules mingle with the fat molecules, causing swirling patterns of color. This is because dish soap molecules have a dual personality, with a water-loving head (hydrophilic end) and a water-fearing (hydrophobic) head or end.

As the soap molecules find their way into the milk, the hydrophobic end of a soap molecule grabs fat molecules. This forms little clusters called micelles, where the soap molecules surround and isolate the fat molecules. 

The colorful twist comes from the food coloring you’ve added to the milk. As the micelles move around, they push the food coloring molecules into different paths, leading to a rainbow of colors and mesmerizing patterns.

Surface Tension

The surface tension of the milk also plays a role in this activity. Surface tension is a property of liquids where molecules at the surface form a sort of dome due to their molecular bonds.

The dish soap disrupts the equilibrium of the milk’s surface tension, allowing the micelles to move freely and create those beautiful swirling patterns.

Magic milk is a great visual representation of scientific concepts, making it an excellent choice for a milk science fair project. Have fun experimenting with different types of milk to see how the fat content affects the results, and enjoy the dazzling display of colors!

Magic Milk Science Experiment Materials Needed

All you need to do this are a few common everyday ingredients you likely already have in your kitchen! 

Let’s make sure you have everything ready to dive into some colorful, milky science by gathering up these supplies:

• Whole milk – other percentages can be used as a variable
• Liquid food coloring – in a variety of colors like primary colors or pastel colors (I used orange, green, yellow, red)
• Dish soap (e.g., Dawn dish soap)
• Q-tips – cotton swab or cotton ball

Magic Milk Step-by-Step Directions

Introducing the Magic Milk STEM activity, an engaging and fun experiment for kids and preschoolers. This eye-catching activity provides a great opportunity for little scientists to observe fascinating color changes and reactions. Follow this friendly, step-by-step procedure to create some science fun at home.

Pour milk onto the large, shallow glass plate. Pour just a thin layer of milk to cover the bottom of the plate.

Drop 4-5 drops of food coloring (in the colors of your choice) around the plate. Leave a little space between each drop. 

Pro Tip: You can use as many colors as you like, and placing them near each other will create more exciting visual effects.

Each time you use a color, add a drop of dish soap to your cotton swab.

Place the Q-tip in the middle of the food coloring in the milk.

Watch what happens to the food coloring!

Swirl the Q-tip around and ‘paint’ the milk. Watch the cool patterns in the milk as you do this.

Observe The Magic Milk In Action

Touch the dishwashing liquid-covered Q-tip gently to the milk’s surface, preferably near the food coloring drops.

You’ll quickly notice the food coloring appears to burst and dance across the surface of the milk. This happens because the dish soap breaks down the fat molecules in the milk, causing the molecules to move quickly and spread out the food coloring within the milk.

The result is a mesmerizing display of swirling colors that is sure to inspire young minds!

Magic Milk Experiment Variations and Extensions

This experiment is easy and uses inexpensive materials. More importantly, it’s fun for kids!

If you’re looking to expand on the magic milk STEM activity, here are a few options to consider:

• Experiment with different types of milk:  Try using different types of milk, like skim milk, 1%, 2%, and whole milk to observe how the variations impact the experiment. Compare the results and see if your child can determine if the fat content in the milk has an effect on how the colors move. You can also try using different kinds of milk , such as almond, soy, or oat milk, to see how that variable impacts your results.
• Play with the colors:   Encourage your child to mix different food colors and see what new colors they can create in their rainbow milk experiment. This will give the experiment a creative touch and help your child learn color combinations when mixing different colors.
• Gel food coloring:  To take the experiment to another level, try using gel food coloring instead of liquid. Gel food coloring is more concentrated, so it might produce different results. This variation can help your child learn about the different forms and properties of colorants.
• Create patterns:   Teach your child to create various patterns (such as concentric circles), different shapes, a color grid, or even draw a simple picture using the food coloring drops. This offers to make an art project out of the science experiment.
• Play with the thickness of the milk:  Instead of a thin layer of milk on a dish, what happens if you use a glass of milk?

Here are some additional ideas for color-changing milk experiment variations and extensions that can be tried at home:

• Use a dropper to add the dish soap, and try placing it at different spots on the milk to see how the colors react.
• Experiment with different dish soap brands or even liquid hand soap, comparing how they affect the color explosion in the milk.
• Place a piece of paper on top of the milk after the colors have exploded and gently press on it. Carefully lift the paper and let it dry, creating a beautiful, one-of-a-kind piece of art!

Enjoy exploring these easy science experiment variations with your child, allowing them to develop their creativity while learning about the properties of liquids and colors.

Important Magic Milk Safety Notes

First and foremost, always have  adult supervision  when conducting this experiment with young children. While the materials involved are generally safe, adult guidance will help avoid any mishaps and ensure proper handling of the supplies.

Keep the food coloring and dish soap out of reach of children.

Here are some essential safety tips to remember while performing the magic milk activity:

• Use only non-toxic food coloring and dish soap that are safe for children.
• Be mindful of possible allergies to milk or any other ingredients used in the activity. If a child has a milk allergy, consider using a non-dairy alternative.
• Gently pour the milk into the shallow dish to prevent any spills, and securely close the food coloring and dish soap containers when not in use.

I HIGHLY recommend having paper towels or cleaning cloths handy to clean up any spills immediately to avoid stains.

Magic Milk Questions to Consider

As you conduct the magic milk STEM activity and take note of your magic milk experiment results, it’s helpful to keep a few questions in mind to promote critical thinking, observation, and understanding of the underlying concepts.

What did you notice before and after? 

Did you notice a plain layer of milk and food coloring drops sitting on top before you started the experiment? After adding the dish soap and witnessing the reaction, focus on the patterns and changes in the colors.

Comparing these observations before and after will help you understand how the dish soap interacts with the milk.

What happened when you put the Q-tip in the milk? 

When you dipped the Q-tip in dish soap and touched it to the milk surface, the colors likely moved rapidly and created an explosion of vibrant patterns.

Take note of how the colors interacted with each other, and how the movement changed over time.

Why do you think that happened? 

This reaction occurs because the dish soap disrupts the bonds between fats and water molecules in the milk, causing the food coloring to move along with the separation.

Consider how the chemicals in the dish soap and the properties of the milk contributed to this effect.

Why do you think the colors stopped moving? 

Eventually, the colors will slow down and stop moving. This is because the dish soap has reached a saturation point, where it cannot disrupt any more molecules in the milk.

It’s interesting to explore how saturation affects the reaction and its limits.

What else did you observe? 

Apart from the main reaction, there may have been other subtle details to observe. For example, maybe you noticed that different food coloring colors spread at different rates or created distinct patterns. Reflecting on your overall observations can lead to deeper comprehension and appreciation for the magic milk experiment.

Frequently Asked Questions

Whole milk is the preferred choice for the magic milk experiment due to its higher fat content. The fat in the milk interacts with the dish soap, allowing the food coloring to spread and create the “magic” effect. You could also use 2% milk, but the results might not be as vibrant.

The magic milk experiment is a short-lived activity. Once you’ve mixed in the dish soap, the reaction occurs for a few minutes before the food coloring settles and the milk returns to its original state. It’s best to enjoy the experiment while it’s happening and not try to preserve or store the outcome.

If you’re having trouble with your magic milk experiment, there could be a few reasons. First, make sure you’re using whole milk, as the high fat content is essential for the best results. Second, ensure you’re using liquid food coloring, as gel or powdered forms may not produce the desired effect. Finally, check that you’re adding the dish soap correctly: add just a drop of soap in the center of the milk and the food coloring to see the reaction take place.

The magic milk experiment relies on the fat content in dairy milk for the reaction to occur. Almond milk, being a non-dairy milk substitute, generally has a lower fat content than whole milk. Although you can still try the experiment with almond milk, the results may vary and might not be as vibrant or impressive.

More Hands-On Fun

Isn’t this science activity lots of fun?! If you want even more great ideas and inspiration, check out these posts:

• Dancing Raisins Experiment
• Fireworks In A Jar Science Experiment
• Easy Rainbow Walking Water Experiment
• DIY Rainbow Spaghetti For Sensory Fun
• How To Melt Crayons Into New Shapes

Magic Milk STEM Experiment

Ingredients.

• Large dinner plate
• 1-2 cups of whole milk
• Food coloring (orange, green, yellow, red)
• Small container dish soap

Instructions

Pour milk onto the large glass plate. Pour enough milk to cover the bottom of the plate.

Drop 4-5 drops of each color of food coloring around the plate. Leave a little space between each drop. Dip a Q-tip into the dish soap each time you use a color.

Place the Q-tip in the middle of the food coloring in the milk. Watch what happens to the food coloring!

Swirl the Q-tip around and ‘paint’ the milk. Watch the cool patterns in the milk as you do this.

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Babble Dabble Do

See Exploding Colors in the Magic Milk Experiment

February 25, 2022 by Ana Dziengel 24 Comments

See exploding bursts of color in the amazing magic milk experiment! We’ll show you some two ways to do the experiment and an extension idea for the project as well.

When you add a little bit of dish soap to milk and food coloring, the colors swirl around to form what I would deem very artistic and abstract paintings! For the science behind it scroll to the end of this post.

The magic milk science experiment is a simple science experiment you can do with everyday materials. I love showing kids how to do chemistry experiments using simple household supplies. In fact I would argue that some of the best at-home science experiments use kitchen ingredient s !

We did this project in our after school classes and when our students asked to “take it home” I told them they could easily recreate it in their own kitchen.

Video Overview

Detailed instructions for the magic milk experiment:, how to do the magic milk experiment, magic milk experiment materials.

• Almond Milk or Cow’s Milk
• Q-tips (Cotton Swab)
• Cotton Balls
• Food coloring
• Shallow plate or wide bowls

Magic Milk Instructions: Method #1

• Fill a plate or bowl with milk.
• Drop in at least 2 drops of each of four colors of food coloring. The more variety of colors the cooler the painting.
• Generously dip the end of a q-tip in dish soap.
• Now dip the q-tip (cotton swab) into the milk next to a drop of color.
• The first thing that will happen is the color will burst as soon as the dish soap hits it. It’s a great effect but very short lived. Once there is a little dishsoap in the milk it no longer “bursts”.
• Gently swirl the q-tip through the different colors and you’ll see little rivers of color start to form.
• Continue until the colors begin to mix and become brown. Empty your plate/bowl and repeat.

Magic Milk Experiment Instructions: Method # 2

Time needed:  10 minutes.

This version of the magic milk experiment lasts a long time, provided kids can restrain themselves from moving the cotton ball!

Pour a thin layer of milk in a plate or bowl.

Add a few drops each of food coloring on the center of the plate.

Soak a cotton ball in dish soap.

Carefully place the cotton ball in the center. The colors will explode out of the center!

Let the reaction continue until the colors begin to mix and become brown.

Tips & More

• You don’t need that much milk! I vastly overestimated how much we would need. For a class of 25 kids we used 1 1/2 gallons of milk.
• This is a great use of expired milk products. Put that small amount of whipping cream at the back of your refrigerator to use.
• Kids love the magic aspect of this project. We called the cotton swabs “magic wands.”
• Too much swishing and swirling and you’ll end up with brown muck fast. Of course kids don’t seem to care!

A word about food insecurity

We try to be respectful of the challenges children and families face including food insecurity. As an educator, I try to avoid using food in projects when possible. I make exceptions for projects that may have a lot to teach kids and where I feel we won’t be wasteful. That said, please think carefully about the population of students and families you serve before doing this project. Consider whether they would find this wasteful or offensive before proceeding. Also consider vegan families who may not want their children working with animal products; see some of the alternatives we suggest below.

Magic Milk Variations

• Try Different Milk Types  We have used almond and cow’s milk for this experiment and both worked well. The higher the fat content of the milk the more pronounced the “explosions” should be. A fun experiment would be to compare the results with different types of milk: almond, cow, rice, coconut. You can also experiment with cream, whole milk, and skim milk to see if there is a difference.
• Premix the soap and milk For a variation we premixed the milk and dish soap. You won’t have the color burst effect but it does seem to keep the colors separate a little longer.

The Science Behind the Magic Milk Experiment:

The dish soap molecules are attracted to the fat molecules in the milk. As soon as you introduce the soap to the milk/coloring mixture the molecules race around trying to bond. The food coloring gets pushed around in the process and appears to burst. Eventually the molecules all bond and the reaction stops.

This is a good example of how detergents work, their molecules have two ends: one end is attracted to oils and the other to water. One end of detergent molecules attracts oils and dirt from clothes, dishes etc., and as they stick together they break the oil and dirt down into smaller, easy to remove pieces.

How to Do the Magic Milk Experiment in the Classroom

If you would like to the magic milk experiment with a class full of kids here are step-by step instructions.

Per student Materials:

• (1) Small Plate or other shallow dish (make sure these are waterproof)
• (1) Large Plate or other shallow dish
• Tray to put underneath

NOTE: You may also use a divided plate as pictured above.

T eacher’s Materials:

• Milk 1.5 gallons per class of 25 students
• Tubs to collect dishes in afterwards

Sh ared Materials:

• Small bowl of dish soap
• Q-tips (Cotton swabs)
• Small bottles of liquid food coloring

Experiment #1 Procedure:

• Pass out per student materials. Ask students to place the small plate in the center of the table. It will be used for the second experiment. Ask students to place the large plate in the center of their tray.
• Explain the experiment first. Tell students they will be making colorful explosions using milk and food coloring and a “magic ingredient.” Tell students to use only a few drops of food coloring once it is available. Demonstrate how to carefully squeeze drops out of the food coloring bottles.
• Teacher(s) pour a thin layer of milk in each plate.
• Pass out the shared materials to each group of students.
• Ask students to carefully drop several drops of food coloring in the milk around their plate. Remind them not to disturb the color.
• When everyone has added color tell students to grab a “magic wand” AKA a Q-tip. Ask them to dip the wand into the magic ingredient (soap) but hold it to the side of the plate until everyone is ready. You can ask them if they know what the magic ingredient is.
• Do a countdown and on the count of 3 student should dip their q-tip into one of the drops of color. Instruct students to continue dipping the q-tip into the other drops. Listen for the oohs and aahs!
• When done the teacher should place the plates and milk in tubs to clean.

Experiment #2 Procedure:

• Ask students to place the small plate in the center of their tray.
• Teacher(s) pour a thin layer of milk in each small plate.
• Ask students to carefully drop a good squeeze of three colors of food coloring near the center of their plate. Remind them not to disturb the color.
• When everyone has added color tell students to dip a cotton ball in the soap.
• Instruct students to place the cotton ball in the center of the plate and not move it. See video below. This is an exercise in restraint!
• Watch as the color explodes out of the center of the plate/cotton ball.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Ana from Babble Dabble Do (@babbledabbledo)

Turn the magic milk experiment into colorful paper!

Did you know you can expand on this experiment by making Marbled Milk Paper ?

Go HERE   for instructions: 

More Favorite Science Projects to Try:

Michelle - Little Paper Dog says

January 29, 2013 at 7:17 pm

So cool! I can’t wait to try this out with my little guy. 🙂

Ana Dziengel says

January 30, 2013 at 2:28 pm

Thanks Michelle! So simple and fun! BTW your blog is lovely! I particularly love that you have fast and easy projects; I’m trying to do something similar on my blog: quick, easy, simple projects using stuff you already have on hand.

Amanda Preiser says

April 18, 2013 at 5:06 am

This is awesome my daughter and I are going to do this today!

April 18, 2013 at 5:33 am

Thanks for stopping in Amanda! It’s a super fun and simple project. Enjoy!

August 21, 2014 at 11:08 am

Thanks! I’m an art teacher. There’s so many meet ideas I got from your blog. Thanks!

September 4, 2014 at 3:49 am

Linda, I’m thrilled to hear it! Thanks for stopping by 🙂

Denise says

August 23, 2014 at 1:45 pm

what type of paper did you use for the milk painting project?

September 4, 2014 at 3:51 am

Hi Denise, I used watercolor paper 🙂

Virginia says

January 3, 2015 at 12:34 pm

Did I miss something? I didn’t see directions for a little paper dog. I love this site. GREAT ideas Sorry if ? is dum! I can hardly wait to make the crystals. You know, Epsom salts have done ‘miracles’ ever since I knew of them! They were up front and most important in the “medicine cabinet” of my parents who had fifteen children, therefore many opportunities to use the salts for ‘injuries, localized infections and sore spots.’ Now I see they can add enormously to the decorations in my life as well as do almost magical “healing” Wish my Dad could see those! “What a Wonderful World!” Thank-you!

January 5, 2015 at 5:30 am

Thanks Virginia!

Rachel Holland says

February 7, 2015 at 9:57 am

I have tried this experiment out with my children today. I was really excited about it after seeing the lovely photo’s etc, however it was a bit of a flop. Tried it with Almond milk as suggested and semi skimmed cows milk, but when we put in the washing up liquid not much really happened. We changed the washing up liquid and got much better colour spread. However when it did the colours almost pretty much disappeared and trying to get paintings from them was so wishy washy. Are food colourings in the US very different to those in the UK, or do I just need to buy better colourings? I assumed that the liquid colourings from my local supermarket would be fine. I have also tried with gel colouring (which is the only thing that most stores stock) but this wasn’t particularly good either. I really want to make some lovely backings for Mother’s day cards etc but I am drawing a blank! Any help you could give would be great.

February 19, 2015 at 4:14 am

Hi Rachel, I’m sorry to hear this! Gel food coloring will not work. Regular food coloring should work fine. You will need to make the prints right away, if you wait until the colors are mixed you will get muddy results. And make sure you are using watercolor paper. I tried the project using cardstock and regular paper and they just didn’t absorb the color well. I hope this helps and please keep me posted!

J lewis says

February 19, 2017 at 10:09 am

Hello there, We used paste food colouring from cake shop, used to colour roll out icing, much better than the supermarket colours, which are useless for most things now as they have changed the formulas. Mix the colour paste with a little water to make a strong coloured liquid, we use this for colouring pasta too and play dough.

February 22, 2017 at 5:19 am

Thanks for the tip!

August 19, 2015 at 9:18 am

Was looking for the science explanation (chemical reactions) to share with the students while doing this? I like teaching the science of a science based experiment.

Neera Talukder says

October 25, 2015 at 6:56 am

can the whole milk be used as a substitute for almond milk ?

November 9, 2015 at 9:12 am

Absolutely!

Peggy Ashbrook says

November 30, 2015 at 4:27 am

I love it when you add the science concepts involved, both at an adult level to refresh our memories or learn new, and at a level appropriate for young children. Exploring the properties of art materials engages children in art and science!

August 16, 2016 at 5:13 am

Thanks so much Peggy!

Lisa Lewis says

January 21, 2016 at 8:07 am

I have tried the milk art 3 times with my grandchildren. We were very excited to watch the action of the colors in the milk but no much happened. I used whole milk, food colors, and Dawn dish soap. But once I put the drops of soap in the colors spread a little and then nothing else happened, I have read the posts and people talk about all the movement of the colors but we didn’t get that result. Am I doing something wrong?

August 16, 2016 at 4:51 am

Once the soap and fat molecules combine the reaction does stop. We like to swirl the milk using Q-tips after and watch the colors swirl.

Milton Garcia says

August 7, 2016 at 7:01 am

Messy. But I think my kids would love this activity.

August 15, 2016 at 8:06 am

They will love it!

Morgan says

August 23, 2016 at 12:22 pm

This looks like so much, and I love how it turns out. This would be a great project to take on with my four-year-old! Thanks so much for the idea!

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Happy Hooligans

Crafts and Activities for Toddlers and Preschoolers to Tweens

Magic Milk Experiment – an Explosion of Colour

Last updated on February 1, 2019

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The Magic Milk Experiment is such a cool way to teach kids about chemical reactions . You’ll set off an explosion of colour in a dish of milk, using just food colour and dish soap. The ever-changing waves of colour are fascinating to watch!

The magic milk experiment is one of those classic science activities  that’s been thrilling kids in classrooms and kitchens for years. If you’ve never tried it, you need to put it on your must-do list now.  It’s fun, quick, and easy, and kids of all ages (grown-ups too!) will find it fascinating!  Be warned though: you won’t just do it once.  If you’re like us, you’ll want to set those colours swirling, twirling and colliding over and over again!

To do the magic milk experiment, you’ll need:

• saucer or small plate
• milk (we used 1%, but 2% or whole milk is said to work best)
• liquid food colouring
• dish soap (I believe any brand will work)

To make the colour explosion happen:

Pour enough milk to cover the bottom of the saucer.

Gently drip one drop of each of the colours of food colouring on to the surface of the milk.  Drop your colours close together near the center of the saucer.

Now, grab a Q-tip, and coat one end with a drop of dish soap.

Now for the magic!

Press the soapy end of the Q-tip into the food colouring, where the colours intersect.  Hold it steady, and watch what happens!

Keep it in place for 10 or 15 seconds, observing how the colours continue to stream out from the Q-tip.

For fun, lift your Q-tip up, and press it down in another area of the plate where the colours have gathered.

Continue to move the Q-tip from one spot to the other, watching the colours swirl and churn and collide.

Try tipping and tilting the Q-tip to see what effect that has on the colours.

Remove the Q-tip completely, and watch in amazement as the colours continue to spin, whirl and twirl.

Isn’t that just the coolest?  You want to do it again, don’t you!

How does it happen?

Head over to Steve Spangler Science to find what makes milk, dish soap and food colouring behave this way when they’re combined.

For more easy preschool science experiments, check out:

10-minute, homemade butter

Expanding Ivory Soap Experiment

Ocean in a Bottle

Turning Grapes into Raisins

Water Displacement Experiment

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Reader Interactions

June 3, 2018 at 8:54 pm

Hi! This looks amazing!! Do you know if there is something else that can be used in place of cow’s milk? We are dairy-free due to my son’s allergy. Do you know if coconut milk work work due to its fat content? We have soy and pea milk at home, but those are low in fat. Thanks for the great idea!

happyhooligans

June 4, 2018 at 3:36 pm

I’m not sure if it would work with a non-dairy substitute, Betty. You could certainly pour a little into a saucer to see if it would work. If it doesn’t, you might pick up a small lunch box sized carton of milk for the experiment. Unless, of course, there’s the danger that your son might ingest some.

April 10, 2023 at 3:43 pm

Oh my goodness! This looks like so much fun. I might have to give this a go with my nieces.

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Magic Milk Science Experiment for Kids

Nothing happens if you drip food coloring onto milk, but once you add a drop of dishwashing liquid, the milk turns into a swirling wheel of color. Here’s how to perform the magic milk science experiment and a look at how it works.

Magic Milk Materials

This is a great science project for kids because all you need is milk, food coloring, and dishwashing liquid. It’s also easy on your pocketbook because you only need a little of the ingredients.

• Food Coloring
• Dishwashing liquid

How to Do the Magic Milk Science Experiment

• Pour enough milk to cover the bottom of a small place or shallow saucer.
• Add a few drops of food coloring. You don’t need to use different colors, but if you do, you can explore how colors combine to make new ones.
• Observe how boring this is. The food coloring drops stay where you put them and may even sink into the milk and disappear.
• Drip a droplet of dishwashing liquid onto the center of the milk. You don’t need to stir the milk. The colors immediately start to swirl on their own.

How the Magic Milk Experiment Works

Adding food coloring to milk doesn’t have much of an effect. Yes, you can color the milk if you stir it, but if you don’t stir it the color spreads by diffusion . Diffusion is a slow process and not very interesting to watch.

When you add dishwashing liquid, the colors start to swirl. Dishwashing liquid is a detergent. Detergents lower the surface tension of the water in the milk, making it easier for the ingredients on the plate to mix. You can observe surface tension if you pour water or milk into a glass and note you can overfill the container slightly. The anti-gravity water science trick also relies on surface tension.

But, that’s not all detergent does. Detergent is an emulsifier . Each detergent molecule has a hydrophobic (“water-fearing”) and hydrophilic (“water-loving”) portion. The hydrophilic portion orients toward water molecules, while the hydrophobic portion orients toward fat molecules. The end result is that detergent forms tiny spheres called micelles that separate the fat from the water. Basically, an emulsifier helps two immiscible (unmixable) liquids mix. The food coloring swirls throughout the milk as the detergent forms micelles around fat globules within it. The fat content of the milk matters. Skim milk contains very little fat, so the detergent doesn’t have a big effect on it. 2% milk and whole milk work much better for the magic milk project because they contain enough fat to cause a visible reaction between the detergent and milk.

From Project to Science Experiment

Science projects work due to scientific principles. For young explorers, you can explain that detergent changes the properties of milk so colors added to it mix better. Explain that the same process happens when you wash dishes. The detergent makes it easier for oil and grease to lift from dishes and get rinsed away. Also, this is a great project for kids to explore colors. They can see that blue and yellow combine to make green, red and blue combine to make purple, and so on.

But, older children can turn the science project into a science experiment. The difference is that an experiment uses the scientific method . In a nutshell, an investigator observes the project, makes a prediction or forms a hypothesis about what will happen if one thing is changed, and then conducts and experiment to see if the prediction was correct. Here are some ideas of factors to change to turn the magic milk project into a true magic milk science experiment.

• What happens if you increase the fat content of milk? You can compare skim, 2% milk, whole milk, and half-and-half. Or, you can mix oil in with milk before continuing the project. Is there a point where the thickness of the milk slows down the reaction?
• Does the project work with water? With vegetable oil? What happens if you mix water and oil and try the project?
• What happens if you sprinkle glitter onto the milk before adding the detergent?
• Temperature affects the rate of many processes and chemical reactions. Is there any difference if you use very color milk compared with hot milk?

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Color Changing Milk Experiment

Frosty the snowman is back, and he loves science too! Winter science is a great opportunity to explore our  Frosty’s magic milk science project with the kids for fun theme science this season. Try some simple winter science experiments regardless of the weather outside!

Set Up Easy Winter Science Experiments

Simple science can be explored all year round with fun themes to make it new and engaging each time! Even something as simple as adding a cookie cutter creates a sense of excitement for young kids.

Winter science experiments are perfect for easy indoor activities for those cold winter days!

Kids are curious creatures and sharing fun and simple science activities at home or in the classroom is just another way to spark the fun in learning. We prefer to keep our science playful too!

Add some blue food coloring to a bowl of milk, and then explore what happens when you add dish soap to the mix. This experiment is a demonstration of principles like surface tension, emulsification, and molecular movement, rather than a traditional chemical reaction .

TIP: Encourage your kids to pay attention to the changes happening in front of them and describe what they see. This is practicing an essential skill in scientific inquiry. Learn more about making observations.

What is Chemistry?

What is chemistry? Let’s keep it basic for our younger or junior scientists! Chemistry is all about the way different materials are put together and how they are made up, including atoms and molecules .

It’s also how these materials act under different conditions. Chemistry is often a base for physics , so you will see overlap!

What might you experiment with in chemistry? Classically, we think of a mad scientist and lots of bubbling beakers, and yes, there are reactions between bases and acids to enjoy! Also, chemistry involves matter , changes , solutions , and the list goes on and on.

We will be exploring simple chemistry you can do at home or in the classroom that isn’t too crazy but is still lots of fun for kids!

You can check out more chemistry activities here .

FREE Printable Winter STEM Activities Guide!

Color Changing Milk Winter Experiment

If you want to make this truly a science experiment, you need to change one variable. What variable could you change? The type of milk? Explore other milk varieties, including reduced-fat milk, heavy cream, and even alternative milk! Learn more about choosing variables.

• Full Fat Milk
• Blue Food Coloring
• Dawn Dish Soap
• Cotton Swabs
• Snowman Cookie Cutter (Snowflakes work too!)

Instructions:

STEP 1: Pour your milk into a baking dish or flat bottom surface. You don’t need a lot of milk to cover the bottom and then some. Then, place the snowman cookie cutter in the milk.

Your kids will probably want to try this fun experiment over and over again!

STEP 2: Next you want to fill the top of the milk with drops of color! Go ahead and mix them all up.

You could also throw some glitter in there too, but that’s optional.

STEP 3: Pour a bit of dish soap into a small bowl. Next, touch your cotton swab tip to the dish soap to coat it. Then bring it over to your milk dish and gently touch the swab to the surface of the milk! What happens?

Make sure to read the science below to learn more about this cool chemical reaction between the milk and the soap.

Remember, you can repeat this simple color changing milk experiment with different types of milk. What happens? Do you get the same effect or does it change?

ALSO CHECK OUT: Easy Science Fair Projects

The Science of Color Changing Milk

This magic milk science project gets it’s burst of color from chemistry…

Milk contains water, fats, proteins, and other substances. The fat molecules in the milk are key to the experiment.

The surface of the milk has a property called surface tension, which is like an invisible layer that holds the molecules together. It keeps the milk from overflowing when poured into a glass. Learn more about surface tension here.

When you touch the soapy cotton swab to the surface of the milk, the soap molecules start to interact with the fat molecules in the milk.

Soap molecules have a hydrophilic (water-attracting) end and a hydrophobic (water-repelling) end. The hydrophobic end of the soap molecule tries to push away from the water in the milk. This disrupts the surface tension of the milk.

As the soap molecules interact with the fat molecules, they surround the fat globules in the milk. The soap molecules pull the fat molecules away from the surface of the milk.

The soap molecules effectively create an emulsion by surrounding the fat globules. An emulsion is a mixture of two immiscible liquids, like oil and water. In this case, the fat in the milk is emulsified by the soap.

As the soap disrupts the surface tension, the fat molecules in the milk move around. This movement is visible as the swirling and mixing of colors.

The water-based food coloring moves along with the fat molecules. As a result, you see vibrant, dynamic patterns forming in the milk.

All the fat molecules have been found when there is no more movement. Are there any more hiding? Try another q-tip dipped in soap! 

More Fun Winter Science Activities

Click on each of the links below to find more fun ways to explore winter, even if it isn’t winter outside!

• Engineer your own snowball launcher for indoor snowball fights,
• Creating a winter snow storm in a jar .
• Exploring how polar bears stay warm .
• Fishing for ice cubes indoors!
• Creating a snowflake salt painting.
• Explore winter bubble science .
• Whipping up some snow slime.

Printable Winter STEM Pack

Even if you don’t live in a snowy winter climate, there are many ways to explore the season!

WHAT’S INSIDE?  You’ll find 250+ Pages of Winter theme projects for science, STEM, and art!

• 25+ Winter science activities  and STEM projects for kids that are easy to set up and fit into the time you have available even if it’s limited!  NEW:  Observation sheets for activities.
• Printable winter theme STEM activities  that are simple but engaging for home or classroom. Perfect for K-2 and beyond and adaptable to many skill levels.
• Find  simple background science explanations  to share with kids while they explore hands-on and playful experiments, projects, and activities! Fun with physics, chemistry, design, engineering, and more!
• Easy to gather supplies  makes these STEM activities ideal when you have limited resources available. Perfect for trying with groups of kids.
• Engaging winter STEM activities  packed with winter theme activities, journal pages, and design process steps! Includes structure-building cards, STEM challenge cards, and screen-free coding activities.
• Fun snowflake theme STEM,  including snowflake cutting templates, snowflake tinker cards, and snowflake science activities, including a snowflake formation cycle!
• Even more, winter printable sheets  include hibernating animals sort, snow weather cycle, 5 senses for winter journal pages, thaumatrope patterns, and fun extras all with a winter theme!

• Pingback: Winter Science Ideas for Fun Winter Science Theme Lesson Plans
• Pingback: How To Make Snow Ice Cream Recipe with Condensed Milk
• Pingback: THE ULTIMATE LIST OF WINTER SCIENCE EXPERIMENTS FOR ELEMENTARY
• Pingback: Gloomy Day Magic STEAM Activities - Ellis DownHome

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BEARDED SCIENCE GUY

How to make magic milk.

YouTube Video

Watch How to Make Magic Milk

Magic milk experiment supply list.

Styrofoam plate(s)

Dish soap (we used Palmolive and Mrs. Meyer’s soap )

Food coloring

Don't forget your safety gear!

Safety goggles

Follow the Bearded Science Guy:

Magic Milk Science Experiment

The Magic Milk experiment is a quick and easy experiment that is sure to wow your child.

The Magic Milk experiment shows how dish soap separates the fat and water molecules within milk using food coloring as the visual component. Milk is comprised of fats, water, and other substances. By adding dish soap, we affect the surface tension of the milk with “water-loving” and “water-hating” parts, which separates the fats and water. The food coloring shows this reaction!

This reaction could be more difficult to explain to a younger child, but I have some ideas for you below that could make it make sense.

How to make the Magic Milk experiment

Supplies you will need.

For the Magic Milk experiment, you’ll need:

• A shallow bowl
• 1 smaller bowl (for dish soap)
• Food coloring
• Whole milk (important!)

Before you start

It is important to use whole milk for this experiment because it has the highest fat. Since the Magic Milk experiment is all about how the dish soap separates water and fats in milk, you will want to use the highest fat milk possible.

Instructions

Here is how to do the Magic Milk experiment:

Step 1: Add whole milk to a shallow bowl

I used a pasta bowl for the milk, to give an idea of how shallow the bowl is here.

You do not have to add much; we added enough to cover the bottom of the bowl and that is plenty for the experiment.

Get your child involved : if you are confident in their pouring skills, let them pour the milk into the bowl. Just know that it could get messy quickly!

Step 2: Add dish soap to a smaller bowl

A small amount of dish soap is enough here. We only need enough to dip a Q-Tip into the dish soap and saturate the cotton portion of the Q-Tip.

Step 3: Add food coloring to bowl with milk

Get creative! We added a drop or two in several spots around the bowl. See what fun color patterns you can make and how that affects the outcome. You can’t go wrong here.

Get your child involved : I let my toddler add drops wherever she wanted around the bowl. I only had to ensure she knew how to get just one or two drops out the first couple of times and she was off!

Step 4: Dip Q-Tip in dish soap and touch colors to make the milk react

Saturate your Q-Tip with the dish soap and simply touch the colors with your Q-Tip (no need to dunk your Q-Tip).

Get your child involved: if you let your child do anything during this experiment, let them do this part! My toddler LOVED seeing the reaction as she touched each color.

Step 5: Experiment!

One fun experiment we did was to hold the Q-Tip in one spot on the milk for an extended period of time.

The result was SO COOL. You could see the colors flowing away from your Q-Tip, but it looked like they were even bubbling up from the bottom of the bowl to flow away.

Check out the entire video below to really see this part of the reaction.

The science behind the Magic Milk science experiment

The Magic Milk experiment is a fun and colorful experiment to learn about chemistry!

For the parent

Milk is made up of fat, protein, water, vitamins, and minerals.

Dish soap is a surfactant, which affects our milk’s surface tension with hydrophilic (attracted to water) and hydrophobic (repels water) portions.

When soap is added to the milk, the hydrophilic portion connects to the water molecules in the milk and the hydrophobic attaches to the fat molecules.

During this reaction, the food coloring is bumped around, causing the reaction you see in the experiment.

For the child

The milk you drink is made up of lots of things, including vitamins, water, and fat.

When we add dish soap to our milk with a Q-Tip, we are separating those fats and water inside the milk. It is happening at such a small level that there’s no way we could see it, so we have to add food coloring to show it happening.

Touching a Q-Tip with dish soap on it to the milk separates the fats and water really quickly, and we see that in how quickly the colors move away from our Q-Tip!

More chemistry experiments to try out with your child

• Fizzing lemons experiment – using lemons and baking soda to make a lemon volcano
• Homemade lava lamp – vinegar and baking soda bubble around in a container of oil
• Fizzing paint experiment – another vinegar and baking soda reaction, but with an artistic twist!

FAQ about the Magic Milk Experiment

Why do i have to use whole milk in this experiment.

Whole milk has the highest fat content, and in turn gives the best reaction.

Here’s a great explanation of why a higher fat milk is better:

As the soap molecules race around to join up with the fat molecules, the fat molecules bend, roll, twist and contort in all directions. As the soap becomes evenly mixed with the milk, the action slows down and eventually stops. This is why milk with a higher fat content produces a better explosion of color: there’s just more fat to combine with all of those soap molecules. Try adding another drop of soap to see if there’s any more movement. If so, you discovered there are still more fat molecules that haven’t found a partner in that big color dance. Add another drop of soap to start the process again. https://www.stevespanglerscience.com/lab/experiments/milk-color-explosion/

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Adding food coloring to milk is nothing very exciting, except the beauty of the colors that spread on the surface of the milk. But if you use one additional ingredient, you will observe an explosion of colors in the milk. The colors mix and turn on themselves as if by magic. This magic milk experience will allow you to observe the movement of molecules and to understand that milk is a mixture of many things.

You will need:

• Food coloring
• Dishwashing liquid
• A cotton swab

From 4 years old

Difficulty : easy

Let's experiment.

Pour milk on your plate or in a flat dish. A height of a few millimeters is sufficient.

Add drops of food coloring in the milk

Use as many colors as you want

Dip your cotton swab in the dishwashing liquid, and then dip it in the plate.

What’s happening?

Understand the experiment

An explosion of colors !

Milk is made up of several things. Mainly water, but also vitamins, proteins and fat molecules. You know that fat and water don’t mix at all. It is calle “immiscibility”. Consequently, the fat molecules are present in milk into the form of dispersed microdroplets.

Dish soap is responsible for this explosion of color. The soap is composed of molecules that love both water and fat. So when you add a drop of soap, the molecules disperse to catch the fat molecules. Hence the movements you observe. These movements, you would not see them without food coloring.

Use different kinds of milk: skim milk, semi-skimmed milk, and whole milk. As fat content varies, observe the behavior differences.

Artistic touch

Take pictures to capture the moment. Repeat with different colors to observe how they move and mix.

Other fun experiments to do at home

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Swirling Milk Experiment (Magic Milk Activity)

• May 15, 2019
• 1-2 Year Olds , 10 Minute Science , 3-4 Year Olds , 5-6 Year Olds , Household Items , Popular , Rainy Day Science

Swirling Milk Science Experiment : In this post, we are going to discuss one of the easiest and my most preferred science experiment that you can try at home (just with products from your home ). You know the best part – it just takes few minutes . 

What you need to do this Milk Swirl Experiment?

• Milk (whole milk or full fat milk preferred. You can do this with skim milk as well – just that the swirling motion will be less due to less fat content).
• Food colors (Blue, red, orange or any other color you may like. Choose at least two different contradicting colors).
• Dish Washing Liquid
• Plate or Bowl
• Pipette (optional)
• Pepper (optional)
• Pipe Cleaners (optional – you can also try out with cotton thread).

[*Product links are affiliate links. Your support is highly appreciated]

Steps to Create Swirling Motion

1. Pour the milk from your container to the plate or bowl. Don’t waste too much of milk, just get it enough to dip your finger say up to 1 cm.

4. If you are fine to make your kid touch the dish washing liquid by hand, you can try it with bare hands. Otherwise use a paint brush or cotton buds.

Dip your hand (paint brush/cotton bud) in the dishwashing liquid and try to touch the milk surface lightly. Hurray! The pepper particles will move away from your hand. Then, try touching the place where you dropped food colors, it would create a swirling motion and you can see the colors flowing out of your hand. 

The result was incredible to look and will amaze kids. My younger one started jumping on seeing these swirls while my elder one started screaming “What’s happening mom?”

5. Finally, we wanted to try creating a color jet stream in milk. This was Pritika’s ( elder one) idea based on a youtube video. She immersed a piece of pipe cleaner (about half the size of the plate) in dish wash liquid and dropped the pipe cleaner in the milk. Surprisingly it created a stream of colors and looked like a small river of colors flowing from the pipe cleaner.

Check glimpse of our whole Milk Swirl Experiment in the video below:

As a mom, I was more than happy that my kids enjoyed this science experiment at home. I allowed them to play with it too their heart’s content for about an hour. They in turn created milk swirls in so many different color combinations.

Now it is time to understand the science behind this activity .

Instead of just talking science basics, it would be better if you discuss the below questions with your kids.

Why did the dish soap make the milk swirl? Or what happens when you add soap to milk?

The dish soap liquid added to the milk with food colors, it reduces milk’s surface tension. Also the dish soap liquid attracts the fat particles in the milk to create a strong bond. Due to this strong bond creation, the food color and water in the milk gets pulled away from the fat particles. This results in colorful swirl motion in the experiment.  The swirl motion will occur whenever dish soap liquid is added to the milk but it won’t be evident and clearly visible unless we add food colors to the solution.

What effect does soap have on milk?

Milk cannot mix with Soap liquid; thus, the soap liquid when added to milk, just floats on top of milk. But in the meanwhile, the fat particles get attacked by soap and creates visible motion.

What is the purpose of the color changing milk experiment?

This experiment allows us to see the invisible activity that happens between soap and fat with the use of food colors.

Why is there movement of dye in the milk when soap is added?

Actually, the dye doesn’t create movement. When soap is added, the milk’s surface tension is reduced and the fat particles start moving to create a bond with soap liquid creating swirl motion. The dye thus shows the movement of fat in milk while soap tries to settle evenly on top of milk.

Why do milk and dish soap not mix? Or why does detergent react with milk?

As we know, milk is made mostly of water (and of course fat). Proteins and fats in milk are very susceptible to changes. So when the dish soap is added, the proteins and fats that were made by weak chemical bonds gets altered.  The fat and protein molecules starts to roll, bend and move in all directions resulting in swirl motion.

What is the science behind magic milk? Or what happens in the color changing milk experiment?

Change in surface tension of milk and chemical bond alteration of fats and proteins results in magic milk.

Is soap attracted to water, fat or both?

If you add soap to water, it would reduce the surface tension of water – resulting in weaker molecular stickiness. That is why it is used to clean clothes and dishes. However, fats on the other hand tries to create a strong bond with dish soap.

What other concepts can be discussed with kids?

Try this experiment and with water. Does soap gets mixed in water or creates a swirl?   Let us know how did this science activity go with your kids?

Reference & Resources:

Color Changing Liquid – Lesson Plan from University of Nebraska Milk Rainbow experiment – Detailed document by The Chemist Get free Worksheet for Magic Milk Experiment from TeachersPayTeachers. We are making our own version of this worksheet with added features, we will make it available soon for our beloved readers. 

Magic Milk Science Experiment for Kids

Categories Science , STEM

This Magic Milk Experiment is a fantastic science investigation that is always lots of fun. With just a few simple ingredients you can learn all about soap and how it affects different kinds of milk.

You can do this experiment with young children, like preschoolers, to get them excited about learning. Or older kids can make their own magic milk science fair project.

Disclosure: Adult supervision is required for all activities at all times.

Table of Contents

• More STEM activities to try
• Materials needed
• Watch the video

Instructions

• What is the science you’re learning
• Why is this important
• Turning it into an experiment
• Free printable recording sheet

More STEM Activities to try

Kids of all ages love a classic science activity. If you want another fun way to teach your kids STEM, then check out these other fun activities.

• Make a Book – STEM Invitation to Play
• How to Make A Pom Pom Shooter
• Floating City – STEM activity for Kids
• What Melts In The Sun Science Experiment
• Pine Cone Science Experiment

For more ideas, take a look at these 42 STEM Activities for Kids .

Materials Needed

• 1 Cup of whole milk
• Food coloring
• Cotton bud (optional)

Watch the Video

​How to do the Magic Milk Experiment

1. pour a glass of milk onto a plate..

You’ll need a wide, shallow dish for this simple science experiment. A plate, which allows for a thin layer of milk is perfect for watching the color explosion that is about to happen.

2. Add drops of food coloring.

I added a variety of colors to my milk. Just placing drops all throughout the surface of the milk. 

You can add your drops wherever you like. If you are doing this with a curious preschooler who will want to try it more than once, you can even experiment to see what happens when you only place dots near the center of the plate versus what happens when you only place them around the edge.

I definitely added too much food coloring to my milk, feel free to just add a few drops because the experiment will still work.

​3. Place a drop of dish soap in the middle

Place a little dish soap (you’ll only need a drop) in the middle of the plate. 

I just poured mine straight out of the bottle. However, it may be easier for young kids to scoop up a few drops of soap using a cotton swab and then placing the swab in the middle of the milk.

4. Watch the reaction.

The colors in the milk will instantly move to the outer edges of the plate. But if you keep watching then you’ll see the constant movement of colour as the colors swirl around all by themselves. This is best to see in the video , which shows a sped up version of 10 minutes of the reaction happening.

The Science Behind the Magic

What is actually happening to make this milk magic?

Milk consists of a variety of different molecules including proteins, nutrients, fats and water. In this experiment we are going to be focusing on the fat molecules (which are non-polar) and water molecules (which are polar). 

These two molecules do not mix. When they are in milk, they are floating around separately.

Soap is both polar and nonpolar, which means it will be attracted to and bond with both fat and water. The hydrophobic part will bond with fat and the hydrophilic part will bond with the water. This means that soap acts like a bridge or a magnet between these two different types of molecules.

Since soap is like a magnet for both fat and water, this means that when you add soap into milk these different types of molecules are going to be attracted to the soap. This movement of molecules is what you see in the experiment. Initially the movement you observe is of the separate fat and water molecules being attracted to the soap molecules, and then the whole soap/fat/water molecule as a whole goes flying around the plate.

Without food coloring, we wouldn’t be able to see this movement. By adding in some color, we can see how the molecules in the milk move around, causing tiny little currents for the food coloring to follow.

When all of the fat has been bonded by the soap then the reaction will stop and your experiment is complete. This is why milk with higher fat content will react for longer than skim milk, because it has more fat available to be reacted with.

Why is this important?

Knowing how soap works explains why it’s important to wash our hands to prevent the spread of diseases.

Bacteria are organisms, some of which (not all) can cause diseases.

The cell membrane of the bacteria (which is kind of like the skin of the cell) is made up of fats (otherwise known as a phospholipid bilayer). When we rub soap over our hands it bonds to the fat in the bacterias cell membrane (just like it bonded to the fat in the milk experiment).

Then when we place our hands under running water, the other part of the soap bonds with the flowing water. Since the water is flowing, it takes the bacteria it has already bonded to with it down the drain.

Turning it into an Experiment

The easiest way to turn this chemical reaction into an actual experiment is to try milks with different ratios of fat. You can try the same experiment with different types of milk (or water) and then time how long it takes for the reaction to slow down or stop.

Different types of liquids to try include:

• Water (0% fat)
• Skim or low fat milk (0.5 – 1% fat)
• Whole / high fat milk (3.25% fat)
• Whipping cream (30% fat)

This is a wonderful way to teach children about the scientific method. You can explain the basic principles of this easy science experiment and then get them to write down a hypothesis before timing how long the food colouring spreads.

You can also download and print the following recording sheet to use at home or in your classroom. Just click the large blue button below to get your copy.

Are you going to try the Magic Milk Experiment with your kids? Don’t forget to pin the idea for later.

Magic milk is a fun science activity for kids.

Use it to show children how soap works and why washing your hands is important.

Or just use it as a fun activity to get kids excited about learning. No matter which way you go, your kids will love it.

• Pour a glass of milk into a small plate
• Add drops of food coloring to the milk
• Place a drop of dish soap in the middle of the plate (you can also use a q-tip dipped in soap to do this step).
• Watch the reaction. The colors will now spread and mix all by themselves.

The higher the fat content the milk has, the longer the reaction will take to stop.

If you want to turn this into a proper experiment, where kids have to make thier own hypothesis and record their results, try milks with different fat contents as see what happens.

More Play Based Learning for Kids

STEM Experiments for Toddlers

Water STEM Activities for kids

Walking Water STEM Activity for Kids

Water Cycle Science Experiment

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Crafts by Amanda

crafts for adults and kid's crafts

Magic Milk Experiment

Author by Amanda Davis on July 27, 2020 Updated on July 25, 2020

This cool magic milk experiment is fun to do and you likely have everything you need on hand. Got milk? Food coloring and dish soap? Then you are all set to do this colorful kitchen experiment!

Why this experiment works

Food coloring is less dense than the milk causing it to remain suspended in the fat molecules of the milk. When you add the dish soap, that breaks up the fat molecules, making the food coloring spread across the surface of the milk. Think of it like washing butter off your hands. The hand soap makes the fat in the butter separate, causing it to break up.

This magic milk experiment uses the simplest of ingredients and I’m going to bet you won’t need to go to the store!

Craft supplies you will need

Get full list of supplies and directions in the printable version at the end of this post.

Helpful Project Information:

• Age Level: 3 and up
• Mess Factor: Low (food coloring can stain fingers)
• Level of Difficulty: Easy
• Time to Complete: less than 5 minutes
• Cost Estimate: Less than $1.00

How to Perform the Magic Milk Experiment

These step by step photos and instructions are here to help you visualize how to make this project. Please scroll down to simply print out the instructions!

• Pour enough milk into a shallow dish or plate to cover the bottom.

• Place several drops of food coloring into the center of the milk. Repeat with additional colors.

• Squeeze one drop of dish soap into the center of the food coloring and what the magic milk in action!

• Another alternative is to dip a cotton swab into dish soap then dip that swab into the center of the food coloring.

Expert Tips & FAQs

• If really small children will be present, they can participate by pouring milk in using a small cup.
• After the design seems to lose action, you can add another drop of dish soap near the edge and watch all over again.
• Do not use gel food coloring. The density and volume of such a food coloring is not heavier than milk and the experiment won’t work.

This magic milk experiment is super fun for both kids and adults. The first time I tried it I was just as excited as the kids were!

More Science Crafts

• Balloon Experiment for Kids
• How to Make a Rubber Band Car
• Homemade Floam
• Colorful Baking Soda and Vinegar Reaction
• Coffee Ground Fossils

I love to create and share my projects with you! I know it’s hard to remember to come back and search, so I’ve made it easy for you with my weekly newsletter! You can subscribe for free and I’ll send you fun crafts and delicious recipes every week right to your email.

• Shallow dish like a pie plate
• Liquid food coloring
• Cotton swabs

Instructions

• Do not use gel food coloring. The density and volume of such a food coloring is not heavier than milk and the experiment won't work.

This post originally appeared here on Mar 8, 2011 and has since been updated with new photos and expert tips.

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Reader Interactions

Free tutorials + free craft book.

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July 5, 2022 at 10:01 am

Rated this project 5 but earlier I read use hand sanitizer and do they mean instead of Milk?????

Gayle Marriott says

September 2, 2019 at 11:59 am

Hi Amanda, my daughter and I tried this and it was so fun. I’ll use it for my Royal Ranger group at Church. We went a little further with it. We barely laid a piece of paper over the design, lifted it off quickly and came up with a design similar to the one in the dish. Laid it down to dry but sprinkled a little salt on it while wet and it made even a greater and brighter look. Thank you for tis really neat idea…..God bless….

Amanda Formaro says

September 9, 2019 at 5:43 pm

What an awesome idea, thanks for sharing that!

March 16, 2013 at 9:26 am

I did this with my 2 great grandsons and they absolutely loved it. They want to do it all the time now but can’t understand why we can’t save it. We ran out of the liquid food coloring, and like someone else posted, I can not find it. I usually shop at Krogers or Wal-Mart and both of them only had the gel ! I will keep looking tho. Thanks for sharing !

March 19, 2013 at 5:25 pm

That’s odd! They have all kinds of it in the stores around here. Are you looking by the extracts and spices?

November 27, 2012 at 3:19 pm

When I saw the first video, I was excited! My kids aren’t due home for another hour and a half, but I was getting the bowl out and the food coloring. Then I watched the second video where you used the qtip to create a star and I was like a little kid, sitting here going, “Whoooooa, Coool!” Thank you for the fun idea, can’t wait to hear my kids…

Amanda says

December 1, 2012 at 6:17 pm

How fun! Hope you had a blast with the kids Lisa! :)

Les Créateliers says

November 1, 2012 at 8:47 pm

I love this project! I posted it mon my website, you can see the page here: http://www.lescreateliers.com/Les_Createliers/Idees_Ideas/Entries/2012/11/1_Effet_marbreMarbled_effect.html Cheers! Marie-Eve

surferboy690 says

May 7, 2012 at 10:12 pm

Thanks for the great site. I need some help with reproducing the star. No matter what variation I try, I only get results like the first set of images. Nothing even closely resembling the star. I’ve tried cold/warm milk, more/less milk, more/less soap, more/less food coloring.

Can you suggest any more details to try to produce the star? Is the heavy cream vs milk the key? Thanks!

Sabina says

October 23, 2011 at 10:57 pm

Try adding HAND SANITIZER!!! Woah, that is funky! We tried it w/ the milk first and then experimented further with the hand sanitizer. It was cool to see the different reactions!

October 27, 2011 at 1:14 am

Oh how fun, thanks for that top Sabina, we’ll definitely try it!

Anonymous says

April 11, 2011 at 6:06 am

You are so talented!! I have been browsing through you site and you are truely gifted!! I love all the ideas and crafts!! I will definately be subscribing to you!!! ps I love this milk and food dye idea! cant wait to share it with my kids!!!

March 16, 2011 at 11:41 am

Thanks everyone, so fun!

Jackie – I'm surprised you couldn't find liquid food coloring, it should be by the spices, herbs and extracts. :) Of course, assuming you are in the U.S.!

March 15, 2011 at 7:52 pm

WOW!!, did'nt have food coloring, sent Hubby running (ha, he drove) to store & all they had was gel, did'nt work, sent him to few more place's & only gel, geez! wuwt!!, so, could'nt do it, but, Granddaughter used it to finger paint, she was happy, will look on-line for Regular food coloring. Can't wait to try this look's like so much fun.. TY Jackie Theisen

March 15, 2011 at 1:38 am

That is actually really cool! I've never seen that one before. Going to do it with my kids tomorrow!

KimberlyShavatt says

March 14, 2011 at 6:23 pm

That is a really cool trick. I can't wait to show my kids. Thanks!!!

March 14, 2011 at 12:49 pm

love love love all your fun stuff! thank you for posting all these ideas and crafts!!

Melissa @ The Chocolate Muffin Tree says

March 13, 2011 at 4:12 pm

Beautiful! Every child would love this!

Josh and Melinda says

March 12, 2011 at 7:43 pm

NEAT!! Kid at heart, and going to go play with the kids! I'm thinking some white tissue paper or onion skin to lay on top and 'capture' their pattern!

Miz Helen says

March 11, 2011 at 2:00 am

Hi Amanda, What great fun! Your post is very informative and a great project for the little ones. Thank you for sharing with us at Full Plate Thursday and please come back!

MessyMissy says

March 10, 2011 at 4:06 pm

I love this. I used it before at the craft time I host at my local library….it is *always* a success!! I would love it if you would link this up to my Marvelous Mess party. I will picking one project to feature on my sidebar for a week!! Here is the link: http://marvelouslymessy.blogspot.com/2011/03/marvelous-mess-3.html

March 10, 2011 at 11:51 am

@Anon – That's an interesting idea! I don't think it would work though, I'm thinking it would just blue together. You could certainly try it though. Let me know if it works!

March 10, 2011 at 7:47 am

Oh WOW! Can you put paper on top to get a print?

March 9, 2011 at 9:19 pm

That is so cool!

Avanika [YumsiliciousBakes] says

March 9, 2011 at 8:10 pm

This is so awesome. I'm off to try it right now!

Rachel Harwood says

March 9, 2011 at 7:27 pm

SOOO much fun! I'd love for you to join my For the Kids Fridays link party!!

:)rachel at SunScholars.blogspot.com

Michelle says

March 9, 2011 at 1:33 pm

Oh this is fun. What a fun St Patrick's Day craft too with the rainbow effect.

RedTedArt says

March 9, 2011 at 1:18 pm

Oh my, that looks WONDERFUL and fun and so pretty! Love love love!!!

Maggy PS thank you for linking up Kids Get Crafty!

Nicolette @ Momnivore's Dilemma says

March 9, 2011 at 1:46 am

what a great rainy day project with my rugrats! bookmarking this! thanks for sharing, amanda!

March 9, 2011 at 1:42 am

Awesome doesn't begin to describe this. I don't even have kids and I may try this and make it just to see it react and change colors.

Deeba PAB says

March 9, 2011 at 1:12 am

This is real fun. My lad found something like this on you tube & we had a great time looking at him do it!

Denise * KKL Primitives says

March 8, 2011 at 9:44 pm

How pretty ! I can see my grand kids loving this! Thanks for sharing Amanda!

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Magic Milk Experiment

Updated: Jan 14, 2022 · This post may contain affiliate links.

This super fun science experiment will entertain kids of all ages - from preschool through elementary school. With just milk, dish soap, and a bit of food coloring.

Explore the surface tension of milk with this fun and colorful kid's science experiment. All you need is milk, food coloring, and dish soap!

• Food Coloring - a few colors
• Large Pan or Baking Sheet with Sides

Instructions

• Add a small amount of dish soap to the bowl, and set aside.
• Fill the pan with milk, at least 1/2" deep.
• Add drops of food coloring to the pan, scattering them around the pan as you please.
• Dip a q-tip into the dish soap, and then dip it into the milk.
• Watch as the colors scatter away from the soap, making colorful patterns in the milk!

You can use any type of pan or tray, as long as there are sides to hold in the milk!

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Magic Milk Fireworks Science Experiment

Magic milk experiment supplies:

• Full fat milk 
• Food colouring
• Washing up liquid
• Cotton buds (q tips) 
• A dish with a flat bottom 

How to do the magic milk experiment

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Soap is something that most people probably take for granted, but it has some really interesting properties. This activity uses soap to disrupt the surface tension of milk, producing swirling colourful patterns of food colouring dissolved in milk.

Printable downloads

Follow these steps…

Think and talk about…

• What colours do you think you will see when the different food colourings mix?
• What is making the food colouring move?

Investigate…

• What happens if you use different types of milk, such as semi-skimmed, low fat or soya milk?
• What happens if you use water instead of milk? Will it still work?
• Try different types of soap and see which one works best.

Did you know?

The earliest recorded evidence of soap dates all the way back to around 2800 BCE.

What’s the science?

Food colouring dissolves well in pure water. Milk is mostly water, but it has billions of tiny droplets of fat suspended in it. Food colouring doesn’t dissolve in fat, so the droplets prevent the food colouring from mixing very far into the water.

The water molecules at the surface of the milk are all pulling on each other, so the surface is under tension. Washing-up liquid reduces the surface tension, but only where the drop falls. Like the rubber of a burst balloon, the rest of the surface rapidly pulls away, and this causes the milk to churn and mix, resulting in the colours you see.

Science in your world

Dissolving soap in water reduces the surface tension, making it possible to blow bubbles.

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